₦airaland Forum

Anyone has an off-grid 48v inverter with no charger for sale?

do you still have the batteries?

ojeysky:
I think it's important to mention, it's high PV low current so my array of 280v but at 8A, I don't think the risk will be lower if it's 120v at 24A

It will be. Current is "pay as you go" or taken as required. You can only talk about the maximum current your system is capable of giving. No one is sure what it will give under every conditions. Even if your system can do 100A, you need adequate voltage to drive it through. Look at a car battery. It is only 12v and you can complete the circuit, i.e. touch both the negative and the positive simultaneously without any shock. Yet that battery pushes out between 100-200A when you are using it to start your car.

Voltage is always there. Current normally do not flow until a circuit is completed. And how much current will flow is dependent on what demand is being made by the electronics. But in the case of electrocution, voltage is the most important. What current will flow is dependent on the resistance of the body and the contacts the body is making with the groud. A good insulating rubber shoe will reduce the current passing through for example. Sweat or otherwise wet body and wet ground will reduce the resistance and increase the current flow.

So, in electrocution, current is of little importance, it is the voltage that is crucial. Yes, it is the current that will kill, but without adequate voltage, there won't be enough current to cause danger. That is why when 11,000V from High Tension poles falls on anything, it drives enough current through to incinerate whatever is its path. 220V can never do that. 220V will most likely send the heart into such a very rapid, irregular beating (tachycardia) that blood circulation becomes ineffective, it rarely causes burns.

essegis:
Nice write up. But in my small knowledge of solar and electricals I believe its better to max your voltage output from the panels into your CC in order to reduce its current draw thereby also reducing your wire sizes.

There is a reason why the higher voltage CC is more expensive than the lower more conventional one. That's because power handling capability will be more using P=IV while also reducing your current further and making your connections safer. There was a 450v Victron I saw, man it was damn expensive else I for use am for all my connections oo. Voltage from your panels into your CC has little or absolutely nothing to do with your system voltage.

As for your friend, what happened to him was caused by current and not voltage. Whenever you short a live circuit, it's the current that hurts. The reason voltage is more referred to is because its usually directly proportional to current. Anyway, bridging batteries is a common occurrence in solar systems and can actually make you confess all your sins if you see it so na to try as much as possible to do your jobs in a safe way. Batteries can also not be isolated as they always pack a charge. Best thing is to insulate your hand tools and cover the battery terminals.

I disagree Sir. The higher voltage CC are for higher nominal voltage systems. There are inverters with nominal voltages of 90v and 180v. These are the ones for which high voltage CC are made and they are expensive because of the electronics needed to handle that high voltage, not so that someone with 12v system can run PV voltage of 250v.

And as to my friend, yes it is current, and VOLTAGE. Voltage drives high current. The higher the voltage, the higher the current it is able to drive through any system when resistance is constant. V=IR. So, for a human being or anything at all, 100V is more dangerous than 10V. Yes, it is the current that kills, but it is the high voltage that drives the current.

Finally, I have once been told that there is an MPPT sweet spot for your panel voltage vs your system voltage, I really can not lay my hands on the details now. But I remember that while high voltage may reduce your installation cost, two much of a difference between your PV Voltage and your battery voltage put extra stress on the conversion electronics in your charge controller. Don't forget that an MPPT CC is basically a DC-DC converter and the higher the difference between the voltages the higher the work needed to be done by the converter and the greater the loss and the likelihood to have a fault.

But again, you must maintain a balance between safety and cost. Unless my inverter system requires it, I will not do high voltage.

And may I remind us all of Murphy's Law; if anything can happen, it will probably happen one day.

This law is particularly relevant in electricity. Look at your system and see what may go wrong. Then try to minimise the chance of it going wrong, and the consequences of it go wrong.

These are two different things. Chances can be minimised, but consequences are more difficult to minimise. So, your best bet is to try to avoid it happening at all.

And to repeat. Work with the minimum voltage that will do the job adequately, no need to play fast and lose with danger to prove some useless points.

I started my inverter adventure with 2 batteries, so I was doing 24v. I later realised that I can reduce the stress on my wires by going 48v. So, I went to 48v.

With 24v, my panels didn't need to be more than about 70/80v for MPPT. For 48v, I don't need more than 150v. So, these are the voltages you will find in my house, except 220v AC.

A friend almost lost a limb not long ago while doing DIY. He was working with his panels when his spanner mistakenly breached the negative and positive terminals. The spanner was amputated instantaneously. Somehow, his hand wasn't touching the spanner at the point of contact. He was safe, but he was shaken. He stopped messing around his installations since then.

So, gentlemen and ladies, let us be safe. Take the necessary precautions.

Get a rubber shoe to wear while working with electricity.
Get appropriate level gloves for your voltage.
Avoid touching naked wire as much as possible.
Use breakers to ensure that powers are cut off before working on your system.
Use only the minimum voltages that work for your system.
Stay safe.

ojeysky:
And those of us that use 450v80 on a 24v system nko

The other excuse you may have is if your panels are so far from your charge controller that voltage drop may be a serious problem.

Otherwise, using such high voltage on such a small nominal voltage system is needlessly endangering one's life. 450v is no joke, AC or DC. Any mistake can lead to death or significant disability.

You should stick to the minimum voltage that will serve your system adequately.

My one cent.

theoilguy:
House,

I am in the market for a victron smartsolar charge controller.. I am torn between a 150v-100amps or a 250v-100 Amps.. Price wise, there is a $250 difference.. Is it worth the difference in price? Are they basically the same? What advantage does the 250v have over the 150v? I have researched extensively and yet to find anything on the internet that points towards an advantage of one over the other..

All comments would be appreciated..

The only reason to go for the 250V100 is if your system's nominaal voltage is 96v and above. If you are limited to 48v like most of us, the 150v is more than adequate for your need and is cheaper on the long/short run.

zellfoxx:
Good morning all,

I have a brand new Schneider Conext SW 4048 230V and an MPPT 60 150 CC for sale. Both still in original packaging with complete documentation. Proposed project didn't come through so they are back to the market.

Quote this post if interested.

Egole? How much?

jmaine:
We will critically derail this thread if we dwell on this discourse...

I put it to you that no University staff will say people had to be bribed in Abuja to release money or to fix money/salaries in the banks..

That nonsense happened during the Abacha Era, so it calls to question your knowledge on the workings and peculiarities of the University system...

Even before GIFMIS was comprehensively deployed in 2015....university staff used to have their salaries very early...so what is the novelty in your IPPIS defense?

Abeg leave matter jare. Make we discuss Solar...

Just be rest assured that I know what I'm talking about. I do not discountenance what your own experience might have been, but I know what I know. Let's leave it there bros.

jmaine:
Sex for grade is a terrible phenomena in our higher education system... But the resistance on IPPIS is premised on a consistent and superior argument by ASUU.. Moreover, not all lecturers are members. Using the IPPIS imbroglio to drive home your point is a wrong analogy

Like you all have rightly said, let's stick with the focus of the thread..


Thank you comrades...

I'm on IPPIS. I used to be on GIFMIS and I believe IPPIS is better. I failed to understand why any group of workers will insist on being paid in a certain way. The important thing is to be paid regularly, completely and as when due. The choice of IPPIS or GIFMIS is irrelevant to me. Infact, IPPIS has saved many federal establishments from salary wahala. No more "money has not come from Abuja", no more "we need to bribe someone to release our money" and no more fixing workers emoluments in banks to earn interest. Many of ASUU's arguments are completely baseless and sometimes outright lies.

ojeysky:
If you think this is about blame game then I can tell you that is not my goal...... apart from taking responsibility by voting in good leaders(assuming it's easy to identify one at the ballot), trying to make a change in this country from bottom to top is unrealistic and impractical. Not with the level of poverty/illetracy that exists among millions.

However I know it will be very much easier to make a change from top to bottom and that is where leadership is important. If we've been complaining about leadership since 1960, it doesn't mean that it is no longer valid, it simply means that we've not yet gotten a good leader since then. Just go and read a little about how Singapore made so much progress or look at what made Dubai what it is today, it's not the millions of people...... It's rather the decision of a leader to get the millions of people to move their country in a progressive direction.

As to Jesus ministry, if his ministry died(or was cut short) we both won't be talking about Christ today.

I kept quiet because I didn't want to get into what looks like a political argument on a solar forum. The problem with Nigeria is that everyone expects everyone else to change while we continue to do our own thing. A bribe-guzzling policeman want a good leader. The 419 guys complain about Buhari or Jonathan or whoever is in power. The student who cheats in his school exams joins protest against a minister who does not have NYSC discharge certificate. The businessmen who started selling N450 glove for N5000 because of corona is complaining about Gbajabiamila buying G-Wagon for his wife. The idiotic pot-bellied smelling lecturer sleeping with female students young enough to be his grand daughters in order to pass them will call himself a socialist and go on strike because of IPPIS.

Our leaders are aggregates of us. They will never be better than the average of us. Even if we get a conscientious leader, the crooks who will surround him and work with him will destroy his efforts. Leadership is important, but with a followership that is not prepared to play its part, we are going nowhere. It is like having a good driver but with a bus full of incorrigible passengers who are distracting him, taunting him, banging things in the car and even wrestling the steering and the gear with him. The bus will eventually end up in the bush.

We all need to play our parts. Until we do so, we will keep complaining about how bad the country is. As we lay our bed, so shall we lie on it.

This is just a further confirmation of how useless the so-called webometric ranking is. Who ranks hospitals on what their website looks like? Are they google or yahoo?

microgiant:
Nigerians can never allow the country function normally without creating avenues for extorting.

solar generators/Water heaters (inverters, water heaters) is 5% Import duty, and VAT Free.
Solar cells in panel form or modules is import duty and VAT free
Yet custom charges duties.

I the case of my my small chinese inverter the cost price (Price + Shipping) was even inflated to charge a higher duty & VAT.

I was charged 20% duty with 5% VAT and another charge of the whole amount, that was before VAT was increased to 7.5%.

And when they do that, you have no recourse. No one to complain to. And when you complain, you complicate the issue and you may not get your goods for a long time. Naija jibiti. Yet, na Buhari we all dey blame.

BENARI:
Looks like newbies ain't welcome here o! I was directed here from another thread to solicit answers to the quoted request, but till now, not a single response to my post.

A beg make una help na, or my in the wrong thread again?

I think it is because your question is somehow vague. What is your budget? Are you DIY or will get an installer to help you? If you are using an installer, your best bet is to ask the installer to give you a quote. You can then bring the quote here for help.

ojeysky:
So which one is currently in active service? If it's the 48v, can you sell the 24v to me while you place another order (since it's for backup)?

You should always have a spare BMS on ground. The major weakness of our "DIY" LFP is the BMS. When they go out, your battery becomes a paperweight until you can get a replacement. If I have an extra, I won't sell it. I will only sell if I have at least two extras.

By the way, when the BMS in the expensive LFP like Pylontech goes out, what options are options are opened?

ceaser:
But it's funny the way you alleged that majority of lithium users here have gotten burned badly but suffer their losses in silence. This is largely untrue. The majority of failed lithium setups that users have posted here, myself included are DIY 18/65/0 cells the limitations and dangers we all understand before even going into DIY assemble with it. In fact, I still posted pictures on here a failed DIY 18/65/0 pack that went south few weeks ago. The failure was not unexpected, but I learnt one or two lessons and would not make the mistakes going forward. Those are the things expected of DIYs.

But I stand bold here and say that I have factory packaged lithium packs that is still going strong for me 4 years. Some I purchased new, some have been used for more than 5 years before I got them and they are still as strong as the first day I got them.

My recent acquisitions in lithium changed from 18/65/0s to LFP which is a safer, more mature concept than the tubular 18/6/50. I have been using this for 6 months and I make bold to say that I have not have headaches using it as I had with your lovely lead based batteries. In fact, I actually gave out for free all my lead batteries which were replaced by lithium. I just gave out a 100ah this afternoon.

Believe it or not, I still plan to keep acquiring more LFPs as my purse allows. Ojeysky is another avid LFP user that has good testimonies.

The pylontech you used as your yardstick for your poor rating of LFP is another class on its own and a breed that requires use with similar products designed to be connected to it, so you can't blame people that have acquired reasonably priced and equally good Chinese alternatives that does not require the stringent conditions pylontech requires for seamless function.

Have you read about CATL prismatic LFPs? CATL is the Chinese company that Tesla have partnered with to provide them lithium for their new line of electric vehicles. This is because CATL prismatic LFPs are cheaper to manufacture than 18/65/0s and are a lot safer. BMW uses CATL cells in their e-volt lineup.

My most recent factory LFP pack acquisition are the same CATL cells straight from the same manufacturer that supplies Tesla. So bro, forget that thing. All you said up there about LFP does not hold much strenght o.

It is true I'm holding my breath with my lithium bank, but I like what I have seen so far. Faster charging, reliable voltage, small form factor, ability to spend all the money you spent on buying the battery when needed, rather than a small fraction of it. I very much doubt I will ever go back to lead acid. I'm even looking for Lithium for my car and jump start. Once the corona things levels off and I can get some small coin from my lenders, I will buy a little more to get rid of my remaining lead acid bank.

This is the article that conferred that title on US. Great job at Fasakin, whoever he is.
https://thenationonlineng.net/zoo-called-nigeria/

I believe a generator is involved. People should get rechargeable lamps and fans rather than using generators overnight, especially if they don't have fence and have to use the generator indoor.

djjoad:
That means he was not screened by the senate. They just copied and pasted the names sent to them.
Rubber stamp senate

This is the list sent to the Senate for screening which is still pending. And to think that 20 other idiots liked this your senseless comment!

essegis:
I bought and installed this towards the end of last year. I have a big family so I bought the 300ltrs own. Cost me 300k then, don't know what it's going for now. You can buy smaller ones depending on your pocket. I installed myself so won't be in the best place to give an installation cost.

Also, they have nothing to do with your solar panels or power providing. The solar reference here are laminated glass tubes that use sun power to heat up water & store in a large cooler for your use.

So, how effective has it been? Kindly do a mini review. Thanks.

ojeysky:
The 2 in bold are in contrast o, one day I will have that much bank to blow AC overnight

I agree! 20x200AH?! Wow!

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Can you paste your BMV [Interfacer] or [node] [[20]] config for the BMV? The settings made in the EmonHub.conf file?

You are clearly not taking all the values spat out from the BMV interface sequentially so hard to tell.

Looks like H4 - 'number of charge cycles' tho or perhaps H11 - 'number of low main voltage alarms'

If I saw your EmonHub.conf file or Python script, I could tell for sure.

How do I get this out of my BMV? I'm only using modbus.

ojesymsym:
Great job u do here, however direct rain water is second only to spring water for drinking but it is not distilled water. Although it starts as distilled water when leaving the clouds but on its journey downward it absorbs gas and other components that distorts it from being a pure distilled water.
AC water collected cleanly is a correct form of distilled water as you rightly said because of the distillation process involved in producing it.

I use water from my borehole on my Trojan fla batteries. They have lasted me more than 5 years, though capacity has decreased as expected.

mctfopt:
$160/$170 for 200A 8s and 16s plus around $50 freight and PayPal fee

But since nothing is coming in now, what is the point in buying? Why not wait till this is over. I thought you had a local seller. Thanks.

ojeysky:
Okay this one is 4S, I got the BMS-ANT which has a wider range.....now waiting on AliExpress to deliver

Can you link me up with the seller?

mctfopt:
This is the one.

How much is the Daly BMS with BT? Were you offered locally in China? I won't mind guineapigging it.

Dudeonyx:
Not really an answer, just sharing.

I got to know a reputable seller on Alibaba from a Solar forum and the cells have been tested to be full capacity by multiple buyers and were recently confirmed to be manufactured by EVE a reputable battery maker.

These prismatic cells are 3.2v 280ah at about ₦33,000 each, so around ₦264,000 to make a 24v 280ah ~7Kwh battery weighing roughly 45kg.

The issue is shipping.

I chatted the company about shipping cost and their rep advised me to wait till miday before making any purchase as shipping prices are very high at the moment due to covid.

But I estimate shipping to cost between ₦90k and ₦150k, depending on if naira regains or losses value and if global shipping costs drop back down

So everything would be ~₦390k give or take ₦30k, plus a BMS @ ₦25k

Alternatively there is the Felicity 24v 200ah ~5Kwh battery which can be gotten locally at around ₦340k ~ ₦350k, need for BMS.

But I haven't really seen any review of it.

So my options are 7Kwh @ ~₦415k ± ₦30k or 5Kwh @ ~₦345k

1. Shipping is a problem. Batteries will always be expensive to ship because of weight, volume and the risks.

2. Shipping will take a long time. I spoke with some sellers in China. Some were quoting as long as 30-40 days after order is placed before the batteries are ready for shipping. Then if you want to keep the shipping cost low, you will be looking at Sea freight which may take as much as 2-3 months.

3. You will have anxiety waiting for your batteries after your cash has disappeared to China. That may be for up to or more than three months.

4. Finally, if you have a problem with the batteries, how do you hope to get any kind of support from the guys in China?

So, my advise. If you can find a reputable local supplier, go for it, even if its a bit more expensive compared to China. I thank God I didn't go for China option when I was trying to buy, my money would have been stuck in China now and I will have no idea if and when I will get the battery.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
Boss nor be fight o. Sincere apologies for any offense.

We are just on opposite sides of an issue and I am rather risk averse when it comes to system design and usage.

I was being especially careful as other people read our posts lest someone go for regular 100% DoD on his spanking new Lithium bank and be dissappointed a few years down the road.

If you read those battery test center results done in Australia it is interesting that all Lithium batteries underperformed their spec sheets significantly when harshly tested. Most new tech failed entirely e.g the Redflow battery and I think all the lead acid tested died (albeit they were not designed for three fast charges and deep discharges daily).

It was a key concern for the testers that consumers were being short changed and paying top dollar for promises the product would not live up to.

With all these, it is in the interests of everyone to baby their systems and use them within safe tolerances.

I believe that the fast discharges, deep discharges and fast recharges of any battery 3 times daily is clearly an abuse of the battery. Whatever performance you get in those conditions is a bonus in my humble opinion. Those tests are basically meaningless as no reasonable person will use their batteries under those conditions.

As to the appropriate DoD for those spanking LifePO4 batteries, every individual will have to do their calculations and decide on what they want. If 20% DoD will give you 12,000 cycles and 80% DoD may give you 4000, you will have to work out the maths and see which one makes economic sense for your use case.

I set up my lithium for up to 50% DoD on a regular basis, but up to 80-90% in extreme cases when I'm pressed.

cjudy:
Location and can I use other network on it

Location Pls. I need it in Ibadan.

NiyiOmoIyunade:
This is a problem with the Pi and more especially with el-cheapo asian components sourced off Ali-Express.

Your best bet is a regular scheduled restart of the Pi with say Cron? Or otherwise refresh/restart the USB subsystem via a script.

Personally I would rather just restart the whole Pi say 2am everyday and refresh the entire system.

At home I use a TP link router for internet with the main internet source being a FibreOptics modem provided by FiberOne, the Pi and other devices are connected for weeks at a time and the connection never breaks or freezes.

So connecting via ethernet or wifi may be more stable than USB modem if you happen to have a spare router lying around.

The Pi I use for my Victron products is rock solid. More dependable than my Outback Mate 3s. I use vitron oem cables though. I once used the prolific cables and while it worked, it was distorting my current draw.